A mild covid infection at the beginning of the pandemic upset Jeanine Hays’ immune system, she said, flagging ailments like the way her husband’s drug ads list side effects.

Chronic hives. Hair loss. Tinnitus. Severe nerve pain. Extreme fluctuations in blood pressure. Allergic reactions to synthetic fabrics and processed foods.

The couple keeps an air purifier and EpiPen in every room of their home; They both travel together. And Hays always carries an extra suit of clothes in case what he’s wearing becomes unbearably itchy. “I definitely still feel like a toddler that way,” she said.

“Bryan and I are learning to live with long Covid,” the 45-year-old said of his high school sweetheart turned husband. “Our lifestyle is very different.”

It’s been four years since Covid began burdening people with persistent symptoms that were often dismissed by mysterious medical providers who were suspicious and unwilling to help, according to clinicians and public health researchers — especially when treating patients of color.

For patients of color, this is an all-too-familiar and maddening story.

Health experts and medical studies have found that racist myths that black people are more resistant to pain, combined with doctors’ biases, mean black patients are more likely to be seen as drug addicts and described negatively in electronic medical records. This is true when it comes to routine diagnoses, and clinicians and public health researchers believe the same is true of long covid, although its definition is largely a work in progress.

It’s bad enough for patients of color to cope with a debilitating disease, they said. They said it was even more devastating to feel like they were being erased from medical records, public imaginations and policy considerations. In many cases, people aren’t even formally diagnosed, meaning they’re suffering and can’t get help, researchers say.

Estimates of the prevalence of long covid vary widely. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that nearly 1 in 14 adults say they will experience long-haul covid in 2022.

While the coronavirus took its toll on diverse communities, especially at the dawn of the pandemic, research has suggested that the misery of long covid is falling more evenly across diverse communities. A 2023 analysis of nearly 5 million U.S. patients by The Washington Post and research partners found virtually no difference in the percentages of Black, White and Hispanic patients seeking medical care for long covid-related symptoms within months of being infected couldn’t find it.

But public health experts warn those numbers almost certainly don’t tell the whole story. The data, they warned, can tell a lot about who their provider trusts, who can shop until they are taken seriously, and who has the language to describe their symptoms to medical staff.

“All of these things were happening in people’s bodies, but they hadn’t heard the term ‘long coronavirus’ from a doctor,” said Linda Sprague Martinez, a professor and health equity researcher who has studied the impact of long coronavirus on Black and Latino communities in Massachusetts.

As part of its research, Sprague Martinez’s team conducted 11 focus groups last year: two in English and nine in total in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean Creole. According to her, in focus groups conducted in languages ​​other than English, it turned out that most people had not heard of long Covid until that day. The main reason, she says: a lack of health information in languages ​​other than English, as well as language barriers in health care settings and on the Internet.

The Food and Drug Administration authorization of Merck’s molnupiravir comes one day after the agency cleared a competing drug from Pfizer. That pill, Paxlovid, is likely to become the first-choice treatment against the virus, thanks to its superior benefits and milder side effects.

As a result, Merck’s pill is expected to have a smaller role against the pandemic than predicted just a few weeks ago. Its ability to head off severe COVID-19 is much smaller than initially announced and the drug label will warn of serious safety issues, including the potential for birth defects.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Merck’s drug for adults with early symptoms of COVID-19 who face the highest risks of hospitalization, including older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease. The U.K. first authorized the pill in early November.

Known as molnupiravir, the Merck drug will carry a warning against use during pregnancy. Women of childbearing age should use birth control during treatment and for a few days after while men should use birth control for at least three months after their final dose, the FDA said.

The restrictions were expected after an FDA advisory panel only narrowly endorsed the drug last month, warning that its use would have to be strictly tailored to patients who can benefit the most.

The Pfizer pill works differently and doesn’t carry the same risks. Additionally, Pfizer’s drug was roughly three times more effective in testing, reducing hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among high-risk patients, compared with 30% for Merck’s.

Some experts question whether there will be much of a role for the Merck drug in the U.S.

“To the extent that there’s an ample supply of Pfizer’s pill, I think it won’t be used,” said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, referring to the Merck drug. “There would be no reason, given it has less efficacy and a higher risk of side effects.”

For now, the FDA decision provides another potential option against the virus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans, even as health officials brace for record-setting cases, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the omicron variant. Antiviral pills, including Merck’s, are expected to be effective against omicron because they don’t target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside.

The FDA based its decision on results showing nearly 7% of patients taking the drug ended up in the hospital and one died at the end of 30 days. That compared with 10% of patients hospitalized who were taking the placebo and nine deaths. (TAMPA BAY TIMES)

Brevard gained two new cases of the coronavirus Sunday morning for a total of 252 cases, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. Deaths stayed the same at eight.

Deaths involved five women and three men ranging in age from 73 to 94. The eighth death was recorded Thursday. One of the deaths involved someone at a long-term care facility, according to the DOH.

There have been 47 hospitalizations thus far. That means the number of people who at some point required hospital treatment, not the current number hospitalized. A more current breakdown is not provided.

The ages of those infected ranges from 1 to 94 and the median age is 53. The racial breakdown of cases is: 70% white; 18% black; 5% “other” and 7% unknown. Hispanics accounted for 16% of cases; non-Hispanics for 77% and 7% were of unknown ethnicity.

Brevard has tested 7,156 people with 3% of tests positive.

Across Florida, there were 31,528 cases as of Sunday morning (30,680 of those among state residents); 1,074 deaths, and 4,957 hospitalizations. The state has tested 333,682 people with 9% testing positive.

The Florida Department of Health announced Saturday it’s only going to provide updates once per day, instead of twice per day, to provide more comprehensive information.

The city by city count as of Saturday includes (note: some of these may include unincorporated areas):

• Melbourne: 82

• Palm Bay: 40

• Cocoa: 33

• Merritt Island: 21

Satellite Beach: 12

• Titusville: 11

• Rockledge: 8

• Viera: 7

• Cocoa Beach: 7

• Indian Harbour Beach: 6

• West Melbourne: 3

• Melbourne Beach: 2

• Cape Canaveral: 2

• Mims: 2

• Sebastian: 1

• Barefoot Bay: 1

• Valkaria: 1

• Malabar: 1

• Grant-Valkaria: 1

• Indialantic: 1 (Florida Today)